In the prior art, photographic copies and enlargements are often made without prior testing of the particular parameters of development to optimize the finished photograph In such cases, the optimum parameters are not always chosen by the operator and, as such, optimum results are not always obtained A need has developed for an invention which will enable the operator to perform tests on a single portion of an image or of the entire image to optimize the conditions of exposure which are to be undertaken in developing the image.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,967 to Virtanen discloses a rotary disc test printing easel device wherein a photographic paper is fixedly placed within a base and a rotary turntable is mounted thereover having an aperture therein which may be rotated with respect to a fixed photographic negative or slide so that a plurality of small portions of the photographic paper may be sequentially developed utilizing varying development conditions to test for the most optimum conditions for exposure of a particular photographic image. As is well known to those skilled in the art, any single photograph includes areas having extreme differences in lightness and darkness, in shading and color, in contrast and focus. Thus, unless the same portion of an image or the entirety of the image is tested in each sequential test, it is virtually impossible to determine from the tests which conditions of exposure are most optimum for that particular photographic image entirety. Thus, the Virtanen device does not effectively operate to enable the operator to choose parameters for exposure since in the Virtanen device, different portions of a single image are sequentially exposed using different parameters under circumstances wherein the different portions of the image do not correspond in the various optical parameters with other portions of the image.
In comparing the different exposure parameters of a plurality of test prints, it is extremely critical that identical portions of the image be exposed and compared. Test prints which are identical as to location of image which result in such a case sere to control for variations in image density and/or color balance along an imaginary line drawn the length or width of the photographic image. Therefore, the variations in test prints made using such a technique are variations which have been selected by the operator and not through specific variations in the different regions of the single image.
As such, a need has developed for a testing device designed to test a single portion of an image or the entirety of the image through the use of a plurality of tests involving varying parameters of exposure so that the optimum parameters may be chosen from the resulting developed photographic paper. It is in this context that the present invention was developed.